“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” 2 Corinthians 3:17 HCSB

Human Trafficking Awareness Day 2014

Human trafficking
Awareness Day is dedicated to raising awareness of sexual slavery and human
trafficking worldwide. It started in 2007, when the U.S. Senate designated
January 11th as National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. Although it is a U.S.
initiative, the United Nations has begun to highlight this topic and is working
towards global awareness.

Here are
some statistics from the International Justice Mission:

Injustice Today

Today, millions of lives around the world are in the grip of
injustice.

More children, women and men are held in slavery right now
than over the course of the entire trans-Atlantic slave trade: Millions toil in
bondage, their work and even their bodies the property of an owner.

Trafficking in humans generates profits in excess of 32
billion dollars a year for those who, by force and deception, sell human lives
into slavery and sexual bondage. Nearly 2 million children are exploited in the
commercial sex industry. The AIDS pandemic continues to rage, and the
oppression of trafficking victims in the global sex trade contributes to the
disease's spread.

In many countries around the world, pedophiles find that
they can abuse children with impunity. And though police should be protectors,
in many nations, their presence is a source of insecurity for the poor.
Suspects can be held interminably before trials, imprisoned for crimes they did
not commit.

The land rights of women are violated on a massive scale
worldwide, but with particular ferocity in Africa, leaving widows and other
women in vulnerable positions unable to care for themselves or their children.
Around the world, women suffer the double trauma of rape - and seeing their
perpetrators face no consequences.

Often lacking access to their own justice systems and unable
to protect themselves or their families from those more powerful, it is
overwhelmingly the poor who are the victims of these brutal forms of abuse.

Facts about Human
Trafficking Awareness

Each year, nearly 2 million children are exploited in the
global commercial sex trade. (UNICEF)

27 million men, women and children are held as slaves.
(Kevin Bales, Disposable People)

1 in 5 women is a victim of rape or attempted rape in her
lifetime. (U. N. Development Fund for Women)

According to UNICEF, 2 million children are estimated to be
trafficking victims of sex trade each year.

The average age of a girl being forced into the US domestic
sex slavery market is 13.

The average cost of a slave around the world is $90.

What can you do?

Talk to children about strangers and make sure they memorize
important addresses and phone numbers.